Ode to Karoo Farmer

I enjoy meeting with all the key suppliers that help Leonista.

There is something very special about spending time with the Karoo farmers and witnessing them see, taste and enjoy the beautiful product that comes from the agave grown on their farm. One of the main inspirations for starting Leonista was to start an industry around the agave plant and Karoo farmers make their farms more sustainable.

Their land is the holy place the Agave plants have lived for over 12 years, and now they are willingly allowing them to be harvested. Yes they receive benefit in revenue for the plant, but I get a real kick out of seeing the impressed expressions on their faces when they see and taste Leonista and start to believe in the vision.

They didn't know what the agave could become all these years. The Karoo farmers just needed a crazy, tequila loving Zimbabwean to show them what's possible. A Karoo farm is passed down from generation to generation, so a Karoo Farmer doesn't think in weeks or months. They think in decades. What they do today, their son or daughter may benefit from down the line. 

Karoo farms are also extremely beautiful in an empty, peaceful way. Wide open landscapes, with small brush and few features other than the classic water pump windmill. They are usually very peaceful, quiet places with grand old farm houses. There is a romance and nostalgia to these farms that gets under your skin and starts to fall in love with. To buy agave from these feels really right and a margarita never tastes as good as one made from the pamplemouse fruit from the farmers wife's garden, followed by a classic Karoo Lamb Braai.

Thank you to all the farmers who have and continue to believe in Leonista and its vision.